State caught in middle in medical parole debate

In debate over medical parole for terminally ill and infirm prisoners, state caught in middle

Linda Pugh of Houston has been fighting to have her husband, Donald, released on medical parole after he was diagnosed with throat cancer in July 2009. Donald Pugh was convicted of manslaughter for a car crash that killed a woman. less

Linda Pugh of Houston has been fighting to have her husband, Donald, released on medical parole after he was diagnosed with throat cancer in July 2009. Donald Pugh was convicted of manslaughter for a car crash ... more

Photo: Melissa Phillip, Staff

Photo: Melissa Phillip, Staff

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Linda Pugh of Houston has been fighting to have her husband, Donald, released on medical parole after he was diagnosed with throat cancer in July 2009. Donald Pugh was convicted of manslaughter for a car crash that killed a woman. less

Linda Pugh of Houston has been fighting to have her husband, Donald, released on medical parole after he was diagnosed with throat cancer in July 2009. Donald Pugh was convicted of manslaughter for a car crash ... more

Photo: Melissa Phillip, Staff

State caught in middle in medical parole debate

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Over the past year, Texas taxpayers have spent $6,000 a day on medical treatments for one prisoner who has run up a whopping $2 million bill.

Privacy laws prevent naming this inmate, who state officials say has been left incapacitated by a deadly, cell-eating virus. But he tops the list of inmate patients expected to drive Texas' prison health care costs $50 million into the red in the 2013 fiscal year.

This prisoner has also become the poster person for advocates and legislators such as state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, who are pushing for more prisoners to receive medical paroles. It's a fiercely emotional issue pitting victims against criminals, with the state caught in the middle, balancing fiscal responsibility with justice and fairness.

The Texas Board of Pardons and Parole has granted less than 10 percent of referrals it received for medical paroles in the past five years. Only about 100 applicants are approved annually, while the number of referrals has nearly doubled to more than 1,800 this year, records show.

Violent offenders such as murderers are now eligible for medical parole if they are terminally ill or require long-term health care, according to recent revisions in state law. The law is stricter on sex offenders who must be in a "persistent vegetative state" to qualify. Those sentenced to death or life without parole are barred from consideration.

"It's nuts to keep hundreds of seriously debilitated inmates locked up when they no longer pose any real danger to the public," said Whitmire, who chairs the Senate's criminal justice committee. "They may have been really bad people, but they are no longer a threat to anybody now."

Whitmire added that while these inmates would still need medical treatment once released, it would be paid for by the federal government, through programs such as Medicaid, and not the state.

Tom Power, legal advocate for the Texas Civil Rights Project, estimates the state could save $76 million every two years by releasing a backlog of infirm and terminally ill inmates.

Rissie Owens, chairwoman of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, warns against liberalizing the parole system or making mandatory releases. "Some prisoners can make miraculous recoveries, including dying inmates who recover enough to commit new crimes," Owens said.

Since medical parole began about a decade ago, authorities say 42 of the 1,498 offenders released committed new offenses after being freed. Authorities could not say what those crimes were.

Anger over release

Brazoria County District Attorney Jeri Yenne was angered by the release of Sadie Proffitt, a convicted murderer responsible for four deaths in the worst arson fire in Lake Jackson's history.

Proffitt set her own apartment ablaze in 2000 to make her husband's death from natural causes appear to be a fire-related accident so she could collect insurance benefits. But the flames also burned the apartment above hers, trapping and killing a young couple, their infant child and the husband's twin brother.

Owens previously told the Houston Chronicle that Proffitt was granted medical parole in May 2011 because she had a "serious medical condition" and a maximum life expectancy of six months to a year.

Yenne disputed that claim. Her investigator reported finding Proffitt living comfortably in a wheelchair at a senior facility then and not suffering any life-threatening illness.

According to state records, 66 percent of those granted medical parole die not long after being released. Only 5 percent have had their parole revoked for regaining their health and other issues.

Power, a parole advocate, said those faking illness are usually weeded out. The main problem, he said, comes from parole denials that turn prison sentences into expensive death sentences.

He points to Samuel Damico, a convicted murderer from Harris County, who was being reviewed for possible medical parole for two months before he died of cancer on June 23.

He had been sentenced to 25 years in 2010 for fatally stabbing a man he accused of stealing his prescription drugs.

But Damico's wife of 44 years, Karen, said he posed no threat to anyone when he applied for medical parole.

"He was totally bed-ridden, wearing a diaper and semi-conscious," she said. "But they couldn't let him come home to die."

She estimates the cost to taxpayers for his CT scans, chemotherapy and biopsies at more than $200,000. She repeatedly called about his release but never learned why it didn't happen.

Rejected many times

Another example cited by Power is Donald Pugh, a Harris County resident convicted of manslaughter in 2009. He has been rejected several times since he made his first request for medical parole after being diagnosed with throat cancer in July 2011.

"I doubt they will ever release him," Linda Pugh said of her husband, a military veteran, "even though he's on a feeding tube now and already outlived his life expectancy."

His release has been vigorously opposed by Phillip Trumbly, whose wife was killed after Pugh suffered a seizure and crashed full speed into the rear of her stopped vehicle. Trumbly has since mounted a campaign to force doctors to report patients with seizure disorders to the state's driver's license agency.

Linda Pugh, however, contends the death was an accident caused by a heart condition, not a seizure.

Trumbly points out Pugh also has a prior record of shooting an Oklahoma police officer in the leg during a robbery.

"I'm not heartless, but Pugh has been claiming he's going to die for over a year, and it's not happened yet," Trumbly said. "Unless someone can prove to me that he can't sit up, I fear he would drive again."

Trumbly, like many other crime victims and prosecutors, said he wouldn't be so vehemently opposed to medical paroles if he were allowed to review the inmate's medical records.

Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley, who serves on a panel that makes recommendations on medical releases to the parole board, would like to require inmates to waive their medical privacy rights "to make the process more transparent."

Other suggested changes include requiring a doctor's presence to answer medical questions for the parole board and establishing parolee nursing homes where inmates can be confined with GPS monitors.

"I think more can be done to reassure everyone," Whitmire said. "So nobody will be afraid to let sick inmates out."